Artist's commentary
Memory of Mother
The famed Sakatsuki house that has endured since the Tenshou era. Girls born in the household all have red eyes and are said to possess paranormal powers. Those girls then become aware of the wishes of people around them, granting those wishes at random...and so are called a God Child.
The first child saved Fuyuki from famine, and died at the age of two. The second child's psyche was exhausted before their life ended. From the third child and beyond, their births were concealed.
The girls of the Sakatsuki household were then raised only by their mothers, secreted away within a boundary that shielded them from human thought. The ritual was meant to enable god to enter into a human body. It is done in quiet stillness, without thought or hesitation. This method of raising the Sakatsuki girls is cold and empty, the opposite of how a child is typically brought up.
Then what, exactly, are these toy balls doing here?
The faint memories of time spent with Mother. Mother and child spent their hollow, monotonous days together in an almost mechanical indifference to each other. But as the God Child gained more human awareness, she finally realizes something: her mother did love her.